LinkedIn: THE ESSENTIALS GUIDE

7 KEYS TO A LinkedIn PROFILE

This is the first part of your profile viewers will see when
they reach your page. This is important area to keep your
viewers interested in you, so make it count!

1. YOUR NAME 5. SUMMARY

Pretty simple!
2. HEADLINER
This could be your current posi-
tion(s) in your professional career
or your educational pathway.
However, you are free to get more
creative with your headline.
“Creative Intern at GAP”
“Illustrator | Cheese Maker”
“Artist & Student at MICA”
This is the introduction to you!
Your summary should include your
background, accomplishments,
and contribution to your area of
specialty. Start to think about these
questions:
• Who are you?
• Where were you educated?
• Where are have you worked?
• What are your skills?
• What is your personality?
• What experience do you have?
• What can you contribute?
• What have you accomplished?
• What is your career goal?
Buzzwords can become really key
here. Sometimes it helps to look
up other people in your network
borrow some of their language. (no
plagiarizing!)
ADDITIONAL TIPS:
• Be specific about your
accomplishments, skills, and
experience.
• Use 40 words minimum to
200 words maximum.
• Check your use of passive
voice and make sure to read
your summary aloud.
• Think of your LinkedIn
summary as a professional
statement for the job that you
really want.

3. PROFILE PICTURE

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LinkedIn members with profile

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photos get 11 times more views. A
well-taken profile photo will reflect
better you! Your profile picture
should be just a head-shot with
your face as the main focus. Here
are some tips for taking a better
profile picture:

1. Take it in a well lit area

2. Show all of your face,
3. Wear a professional outfit.

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4. Non-distracting background.
5. Make sure it reflects you!

4. CONTACT INFO
Make sure to add your contact
information so your viewers have
a way to get in touch with you. The
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interface of LinkedIn Messages is
quite clunky and most people do
not like using it, so it is better to
provide your viewers with an easier
option.

You can provide an Email Address

(professional), Twitter link, or a Port-
folio Link. You don’t have to have
them all, but it’s good to provide at
least one.
 LinkedIn: THE ESSENTIALS GUIDE

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6. EXPERIENCE
If you don’t have a resume already,
a LinkedIn profile can act as an
aid to drafting one up! There are
several types of experience you
can add to your LinkedIn profile
like:
• Job Experience
• Volunteer Experience
• Projects
• Publications
• Honors and Awards
• Skills
• Courses
Projects, exhibition work, leadership
positions, volunteer work, and so on
can be included in the EXPERIENCE
section. The key is to not think of
these sections as being solely for
past job or internship experience.

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7. DOCUMENTATION
documentation of your experience marked EXPERIENCE can be used
Below the SUMMARY and
can give viewers a better sense for projects and act similarly to a
EXPERIENCE section, there are
your personal style. portfolio.
options to add documentation
of your work. This can be
LinkedIn provides a project
photographs, text, videos,
section, but it doesn’t have the
presentations, and links where you
option to add an image gallery,
showcase your skills. Including
so as an alternative the section

GETTING CONNECTED
LinkedIn’s mission is to connect the world’s professionals to
make them more productive. Networking is key and will get
you the most out of LinkedIn’s platform.

WHO TO CONNECT PRIVACY TIP!

The power to connect is what
makes LinkedIn a great networking
tool. You can add anyone you know
personally like friends and family
members. You should think about
adding any:
• Classmates and alumni.
• Coworkers and former
employers.
• People you know through
mutual connections.
• Family members
• Faculty
• Friends
When connecting with people on
LinkedIn:
• Consider personalizing your
connection request. Mention
how you know them. Where
you met, when you met, why
are you connecting with them
etc.
• If you talked, mention
something that interested you
about them.
• Tell them why you wanted to
connect with them.
Before you let the whole world
know via email that you’ve made a
LinkedIn, consider changing these
default settings:
Find “Privacy & Management” in
the Account & Settings section
Turn on/off your activity broadcasts
option: with this option on, every
single change you make will be
broadcasted to your network
through email. If you prefer not to
share your activity, turn this off.